


Room For Two

by xLoveMx



Category: Newsies (1992)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-25
Updated: 2014-09-28
Packaged: 2018-02-14 16:48:02
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 21,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2199435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xLoveMx/pseuds/xLoveMx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Jacobs Family gets invited to take a few weeks of vacation on a farm that belongs to friends of Denton, but David decides to stay back to work and catch up on school, little does he know that he won t be so alone for those few weeks. /Javid</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

After the strike, everything had gone back to normal, David and Les were still working with the Newsies, because as much as David wanted to go back to school, they still needed the money as long as their father was sick, and he also couldn´t quite imagine not spending every day by Jake´s side. Not seeing the other boy for a few days had been weird, and while there was a highly logical reason for that, something that could be explained with science and the way David´s brain and body worked, he still didn´t want to experience it again anytime soon. That was also the reason he made the decision to stay home when Denton told them that he had friends who lived a little out of the city, on a farm, and that they would be happy to have the Jacob´s family for a couple of weeks. David couldn´t even remember if they had ever been on any sort of vacation, and usually his father wouldn´t have accepted such a generous gift, but even he knew that, with getting out of the city and resting, his chances of healing quicker were a lot better than when he stayed in New York City.

His mother had been, of course, protesting that she couldn’t possibly leave David alone and all by himself in their apartment, but even she had to admit that he was probably the most responsible of them all and that they do needed the money to pay for everything, especially if Sarah was going to take a few weeks off work as well. She had, polite as she was, offered to stay home too, but David knew that she was working hard as well and deserved a break. That was his official argument, anyway. He was also aware that Sarah didn´t want to stay because of her work, but because of Jack, naturally. Nothing else had happened ever since they had kissed that day at the end of the strike, at least that was what David had heard from the other boys, not that Jack talked to him about these things, but somehow David thought that it was better to keep them apart for a while. He knew that Jack was very passionate about the things that he cared about, and as much as he was feeling sorry for Sarah, he had to admit that his observations had proven that it didn´t seem like Jack was as passionate about her as he would need to be to make this work. So if they were apart for a few weeks, Jack would either realize that Sarah meant something to him, something more than a friend, or they would both realize that this relationship, if you could even call it that, wasn´t leading them anywhere.

“You still with us, David?” his father´s voice pulled him back from his thoughts and he simply nodded, directing his eyes towards Mayor.

“Yes, of course. You were saying?” he asked, trying to not look like he had just been caught not listening.

“Your mother asked you to keep an eye on those boys for us, especially on Jack, we have…” he looked over at Sarah, who seemed to be blushing as she looked away, “…grown rather fond of him,”

David simply nodded, trying to ignore the twinge in his stomach. It was probably complaining since he hadn´t eaten all morning, because they had been all over the place trying to get their luggage together and to not forget anything. “Of course, I´m the only sane person between all of those boys, I´ll keep them on track,” he then said with a smile and Mayor returned it, patting his son on the shoulder with his good arm before he moved towards the door.

“I believe the carriage is waiting,” he then announced and soon enough David was hugged and kissed goodbye by his sister and mother while Les moved in to give him the Newsies handshake, but only after their mother was out of sight.

“You´ll write me, yeah?” Sarah then asked and David nodded, knowing that she simply would want to know if Jack said something about her. David didn´t know a lot about girls and love, except for what he could observe from Sarah´s behaviour, sometimes her friend´s from when they had still been in school, and some things he had of course read about, and while that wasn´t much it really didn´t take a scientist to see what was going on here.

“I promise,” David said with an honest smile and Sarah hugged him once more before she took Les by his hand, the one he hadn´t used for the handshake obviously, and lead him out of the apartment and down to the street where the carriage was waiting for them.

David stood there for a moment, turning the promise over in his head a few times. He knew that he had simply promised to write her, but with how Sarah had looked at him she had made him promise something else with it, to see what Jack was thinking about this whole thing, if he thought about Sarah, if they were a couple, all those things were things Jack and him didn´t talk about, they hadn´t really been able to talk about much ever since the strike had ended anyway, mostly because there had always been someone else around, either it had been one of the boys or journalists who had wanted to talk to them. They were well known these days, even across the borders of New York, and while David didn’t mind, he still would have liked some more alone time with Jack so they could finally talk about all those questions David had. He knew that he wouldn´t push for any answers, but he wanted to know more about Jack´s past and he wanted Jack to trust him enough to share it with him. He had to admit that he wasn´t quite sure where to begin or how to bring the subject up though, but at first he would have to finally spend some time with Jack alone, and that seemed like a pretty hard task on its own these days.

Technically David had been invited over to the Lodging House to play cards with the boys today, but he wasn´t the biggest fan of their games, mostly because everyone was cheating left and right and David just wasn´t the type to do that, which meant that he was naturally losing and that didn´t really do anything for his self-confidence or his mood, so he usually stayed away. Sometimes he stayed just to watch Jack play, because somehow he still managed to win whenever he played, and David was pretty sure that he was cheating too, but he hadn´t figured out how yet, so he kept staying to watch him play and to figure him out. Today was different, though. It was his first night alone at the apartment and while he had been the one to suggest that he´d stay back alone, David felt like that, if he left to be with the boys now, he would rather stay with them than to return to the empty apartment. Of course that sounded stupid, and was probably only going on in David´s own head, but he´d rather not risk anything.

-

It was after 7 when he returned from buying groceries so he would have enough to eat for the next week. It wasn´t the first time he had gone on his own, his mother had sent him to help her out with those things early on and, despite his father´s slight protest, she had taught him how to cook and it had proven to be rather useful.

The soup was cooking on the stove when David heard a knock on the window and looked over, only to find Jack climbing in already. “We do have a door, you know?” David reminded him, but he couldn´t help the smile that was tugging on the corners of his lips.

“I like to make an entrance,” Jake replied, a smirk on his own lips as he jumped from the window sill and into the apartment. “What´cha cooking?” The soup had begun smelling quite nicely and David was proud that it was turning out to be this good, so he just pointed over at the stove.

“Vegetable soup,” he then said, smiling over at his best friend. “Why aren´t you playing card with the boys?”

“I could ask you the same,” Jack moved into the room and then leaned against the table, looking back at David.

“I never play,” David reminded his best friend as he reached for the spoon, stirring the soup.

“Figures,” Jack then said, because he knew exactly why David didn´t play, he had told him on one of those nights out on the balcony, when they´ve still had time to sit out there, just the two of them. “Where´s everyone?” Jack eventually asked as he noticed that the apartment was completely empty except for the two boys. Meanwhile David had reached for a plate and the moved to get himself some of the soup. He looked over at his best friend after that, telling him about Denton´s friends and that they had invited his family to stay with them.

“You want some soup?” he then asked, but of course David knew the answer already, sometimes he felt like he knew Jack better than himself, but then again there was still a lot he didn´t know about his best friend and suddenly David realized that this was finally his chance to get some time with his busy best friend, because Jack would definitely stay for dinner. _And there is a lot of soup,_ David thought, smiling into his spoon.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The soup seemed to be good, because Jack demanded more as soon as he had finished his first plate and David was rather proud of himself. Back in the days Jack would have probably taken another plate simply because he was hungry, but these days they earned more money from selling papers and for the journalists paying to talk to them, so they all could afford better and more food, which meant that he actually liked what David had cooked and that had the other boy´s lips curling into a smile.

“So you gonna be alone for weeks now?” Jack eventually asked and David looked over, nodding. “Well, I´ll be with you guys for most of the day, so…” he trailed off, waving his hand. He figured it would feel weird to come home to an empty apartment, to no one waiting for him, no one that had saved him some food from lunch, but it would be something David would get used to, and it wasn´t like his family was completely gone. They were probably already on the farm and his parents were resting while Les and Sarah were taking a look around and playing with animals. David smiled at that thought, trying his best to ignore the other ones in his head.

“You know that half of da boys will come visit and stay over, right?” Jack then laughed before taking another spoon full of soup and shoving it into his mouth.  David´s brain immediately went to how the place would be a mess after that and that he would be the one stuck with cleaning up. He must have looked rather terrified, because Jack was laughing and David just furrowed his brows.

“I´ll tell ´em to behave, Davey.” he them promised, the laughter dying down until there was simply a smile left on his face.

“You better,” David muttered before taking another spoon full of his soup and eventually finishing the plate. He didn´t mind cleaning up if it was necessary, but he wasn´t really a friend of cleaning up other people´s messes, especially if they had been made in his apartment.  “So…you´re going to go back to playing cards then?” he asked as he got up and took his plate to the sink so he could eventually clean it up.

“Maybe,” Jack said as he finished off his own plate and leaned back in his chair. “Ye coming with me?” he then added and David bit his lip, glad that Jack couldn´t see him with his back turned towards the Newsies leader.

“Don´t know, I usually just watch anyway and there´s still a lot to be cleaned up, so I might just stay home for tonight, mentally prepare myself for the mess that´s going to be made of this place,” It wasn´t like David didn´t trust Jack to tell the boys to behave, but he also knew his friends and that they would eventually forget about it. David already saw himself running around and telling everything to _‘Put this down!’_ and _‘Stop that!’_ it was probably a lot worse in his head, the downside of having a very vivid imagination, but David couldn´t help it.

“I could help ya,” Jack then said and David finally looked over his shoulder and at his best friend.

“What?” he then asked, a little confused. Not that he minded help, or spending time with Jack, but usually he was the first one that was in when the others were playing cards and now he was about to ditch it for David, a thought that made the other boy´s stomach flutter. For a moment he considered just taking him up on the offer, but what if it was just a test? Or if Jack was just being polite and had only offered so David would decline?

 _Because the first thing Jack Kelly thinks about is being polite,_ a voice in his head reminded David and he shook his head. True. Jack did a lot of things without thinking them through, but he probably wouldn´t have offered to stay if he didn´t want to, he had left the card came to come over after all.

“If you wanna,” David then said with a soft smile as he leaned over to get Jack´s plate from the table to put it into the sink along with his own. Jack was smiling at him too before he got up and looked around.

“Alright, what do I do?” He seemed rather enthusiastic and David couldn´t help but smile a little brighter. He knew that Jack could get very excited about things when they sounded great to him or when they concerned and helped the wellbeing of his friends, but he hadn´t expected his best friend to be so enthusiastic about cleaning up. They started out with putting away the groceries David had bought earlier and which were still laying around on the counter. Jack was looking rather concentrated while he tried to come up with some sort of system to sort everything into the right place, or at least so it was easy to find, because he knew that David didn´t like it when everything was a mess and he didn´t like it when David was upset. That was a fact everyone knew about, even if it was never said out loud.

Once everything was put away and David had cleaned the kitchen, he looked over at Jack, half with a smile and half with some sort of knot in his stomach, because he knew that, now they were finished, Jack would probably return to the Lodging House. Of course there was nothing David could do to stop him, and why would he? The boys were usually playing all night and it would never be too late to join them, but he didn´t like the thought of being alone in here. At the same time David knew he would probably stay over at the Lodging House if he left now and everyone would probably call him crazy, because having an entire apartment to yourself would sound like heaven to most of those boys.

 _Stop overthinking things,_ David told himself and shook his head, which earned him a raised eyebrow and a slightly judging look from Jack.

“Stop thinkin´ so much, Davey.” the other boy then told him and once again David was taken aback by how well Jack could read his mind. It really shouldn´t surprise him that much anymore but somehow it always caught him off guard when it happened. They had spent almost every day together during the strike and they continued to do so, they were selling partners after all, Jack knew what David was thinking and David always seemed to be able to tell how Jack was feeling and he knew what to say to cheer the other boy up. Sure, he didn´t know much about the life Jack had lived before he had even been called ‘Jack’, but while it was something that David wanted to know he knew that he could still trust Jack, whether he was telling him about his past life or not.

 _Maybe he doesn´t trust you enough to tell you,_ the voice in his head was back and David shook it off, trying not to let it get the better of him. Jack trusted him, he knew that much, and he blamed the lack of conversation about this subject on the fact that they didn´t get to spend much time together alone these days, and as far as David was concerned, not even Crutchie knew about Jack´s past.

“Alright, y´are thinking too much,” Jack´s voice pulled him back and David looked over, just able to keep the blush from creeping up his neck and into his cheeks. Sometimes he hated that Jack could read him like an open book, but there was nothing he could do about it and somehow there was also something very intimate about someone knowing everything about you, to have someone you couldn´t hide or run from, no matter how hard you tried.  David furrowed his brows at that thought for a moment, because wow, he had never really thought about it that way, but Jack was quick to pull him out of those thoughts as well.

“Ya mind if I just stay tonight?” he asked and David looked up, his stomach fluttering once more and he had to keep himself from actually telling it out loud to stop.

“No,  ´course not,” he smiled instead. “Why would I?”


	3. Chapter 3

Once everything was cleaned up, and now that it was clear that Jack was staying over, David was faced with another problem. It wasn´t like they had never fallen asleep together in the same bed, but now they had two beds, three even if they counted his parent´s bed, and he wasn´t quite sure if it would be polite to offer Jack his own bed and sleep in Sarah´s, or if it would make Jack think that David had somehow developed a problem with sleeping in a bed with him. That was a question that actually had the boy dumb struck for a moment. He just stood in the middle of the main room, looking around and honestly not knowing what to do. David know that this was stupid, and that it was the logical thing to offer Jack his own bed, but then again Jack Kelly had never been someone that went the logical way first, at least not unless David told him that it was the better and more effective option.

David shook his head and once again it was Jack who pulled him from his thoughts. “Alright, whatcha thinkin´ about now?” he said and David could hear the teasing tone in his voice. He was almost tempted to say ‘Nothing,’ but Jack would probably bug him about it until David told him and he really wasn´t in the mood for that. He usually never was, but some days he could deal with it much better than others and today was definitely not one of those days.

“I´m contemplating where we will be sleeping,” David eventually said, as if it was one of the most ordinary things to be spending your time worrying about. Jack raised an eyebrow at him and then leaned against the table.

“You thinkin´ bout goin´ to bed already?” he then asked and now David furrowed his brows, looking over at the clock and then back at Jack. It was barely 8 o’clock and well, he wasn´t even tired. The sleeping problem had just taken up so much room in his head that he hadn´t even thought about the fact that it was still rather early.

“No, of course not, I was simply turning ideas over in my head,” David eventually said, trying to give Jack a smile, even though he could tell that the other boy knew that he had gotten caught up in his thoughts once again. Jack and David were complete opposites when it came to that. Sure, Jack had lingering thoughts about a certain subject sometimes, but he was a rather impulsive person and usually didn´t think before he spoke or acted, while David turned over everything in his head one time more than necessary and tried to come up with every possible outcome of a situation so he would be prepared for whatever happened. Of course that had changed drastically when he had met Jack and the two of them had practically collided on their first say, but still, overthinking things wasn´t exactly something Davey could turn off completely, especially not when Jack wasn´t around to remind him to just let it go.

They ended up sitting on his parent´s bed, simply because it was the biggest one, playing cards. Davey only ever played with Jack, because while he was a rather good player, he refused to use any tricks or cheat, like all the other boys, so naturally David was losing, and while he didn´t know if Jack cheated when playing with the boys, he knew that his best friend would never cheat while playing with him. Sometimes he wondered If Jack really was that good of a player and just let him win every now and then just so David wouldn´t get too frustrated playing with him. David had been tempted to ask more than once, but he knew that Jack would just laugh at him and roll his eyes, avoiding the matter. He would have loved to know though, because letting him win meant that David was important to him and that he liked spending time with him. Not that it wasn´t obvious, because otherwise Jack wouldn´t be here, obviously and wow, he was already thinking too much again.

He wasn´t quite sure for how long they had played, but David couldn´t remember putting the cards away, or turning off the lights, actually, he didn´t remember much in general. The next thing Davey noticed was the smell of coffee and well, that could only mean that he was dreaming. Why else would anything be smelling of coffee? But wait, when had he fallen asleep? He blinked a few times, his sight still a little blurry, but he could clearly make out the main room of his family´s apartment, but then why was it smelling like coffee in his apartment? David clearly wasn´t fully awake yet, but when he heard noises that were clearly not made by him he sat up with a start, looking around slightly panicked. He only really calmed down when he saw Jack standing by the stove, making what had to be, and smelled like, coffee. David´s eyes wandered over to the dining table, where two plates with bread on them were placed and everything David had bought for breakfast the day before was carefully, and rather neatly, placed on the table as well. His brain was slowly catching up with everything and before he could even so much as open his mouth to say ‘Good Morning’ Jack was walking over to the bed, handing David a cup of coffee. He hadn´t really been a big fan of it before, but ever since he had started selling papers and getting up even earlier than usual David couldn´t deny that the caffeine was definitely helping with staying awake and on top of his game during the day.

“Thank you,” he eventually managed with a slight smile, which Jack returned. “I made breakfast too,” he then said. “But that kinda took longer than I thought it would so we gotta hurry a little, I´mma get the sandwiches ready,” David was taken aback for a little, because he hadn´t taken Jack for someone that was quite this domestic, but then again the boy had been living by himself for quite a while so he would have probably starved to death by now. Once again David´s brain was only slowly catching up, so when his eyes eventually reached the clock on the wall, he practically jumped out of bed, almost spilling the coffee. If they didn´t hurry they would be late and that was something they couldn´t afford as Newsies, and besides, David was never late.

He cast one last look at Jack then, who was smiling as he directed his attention towards the bread and the sandwich ingredients, before taking off for the bathroom, the coffee mug still in his hand. David was pretty sure that he had never been this quick in getting showered and dressed, and finishing his coffee in the process, but he was quite proud of himself, so when he emerged from the bathroom, fully dressed and ready to go, David was smiling. He moved into the kitchen area and then took the sandwich that Jack handed him. They would be able to eat those on their way to the Square, because there was really no time to lose. David made a mental note to set the alarm clock for tomorrow, because he really couldn´t afford to oversleep, and even though he knew he wouldn´t be playing cards up until late with Jack every night he still wanted to be on the safe side.

David took the sandwich and headed for the door when he realized that Jack was taking off in the opposite direction. He stopped and looked over his shoulder, rolling his eyes, even though he couldn´t hide the smile tugging on the corners of his lips. “Jack, for the last time: We have a door!”

-

They made it to the Square in time to meet up with the other Newsies before Weasel opened up. Most of the boys had dark shadows under their eyes, which David assumed came from staying up all night to play cards. Thanks to the coffee, the shower and the quick pace Jack and him had picked up to get here, he was feeling oddly refreshed and awake, which didn´t seem to go too well with everyone else´s mood.

 “Why ya gotta be so damn chipper?” Race complained, pulling his hat down into his face as he looked up at David.

“It´s too damn early to be like that,” Boots agreed with a yawn and the rest of the boys nodded.

“Well that happens when ya don´t have anyone else shoving a foot into your face when you´s tryin´ to sleep,” Mush then added, but David´s mood was too good to actually be offended by any of their comments. Once they were all sorted out and had bought their papers, Crutchie, who seemed to be the fittest one of them all, noticed that Les was absent. For a moment everyone had seemed to have forgotten about their woes, and when David told them that his family was simply away on vacation they all seemed to be visibly relieved and even left with a smile on their faces, or well, at least most of them did.

“Hey, Jack?” David eventually said as everyone was beginning to trot away to their selling locations. “Yeah Davey?” the other boy asked, looking over at his best friend as he stored away the papers in his bag.

“I just…wanted to say thank you, for making breakfast, and all that.” David eventually said and for some reason he could feel some sort of blush creeping up, which only seemed to increase when Jack gave him one of those famous smiles of his. David sincerely hoped that the blush wasn´t too obvious though, because well, he had no good explanation for it.

"'s the least I could do," Jack then said with a smile. "I mean I had a comfortable bed for once and that´s definitely worth breakfast," he grinned and David couldn´t help but return the grin as they took off to begin their selling day.


	4. Chapter 4

Somehow the day went by faster than usual, which was weird, or well, maybe it was happening because David didn´t want it to end, he still didn´t particularly like the idea of going home to an empty apartment soon. Sure, he had avoided it yesterday, but that had been more luck than anything else. He couldn´t force Jack to stay over the whole time his family was gone, not even if he really wanted him to. The other boy was paying for his place at the Lodging House after all and really, he did spend most of his time with the other Newsies and Davey figured he himself wouldn´t quite fit into the picture there. Truth be told: Jack would probably get bored of him rather easily.

David wasn´t even sure where all of those thoughts had come from all of a sudden, or if he had just kept them in the back of his mind while they had concentrated on selling the papes, but in the end it didn´t matter. He was still going to go home to his apartment alone and he would have to find a way to deal with it.

_Jeez…don´t be such a baby,_ he told himself when he had finally sold his last paper and was making his way back to Newsies Square with Jack. The boys would probably ask him to stick around for a little longer, but David already knew that he would decline, because if he stayed he wouldn´t want to go home, and he really couldn´t let this stupid feeling get the better of him. He said goodbye to everyone eventually, forcing himself to not let his eyes linger on Jack any longer than necessary, before he made his way home to the apartment.

It was still weird to not have anyone waiting for him when he opened the door. No smell of food, no mother that gave him a kiss on the cheek when entered the apartment, no Sarah that was begging him to tell her something about Jack and... _Sarah._ David thought, suddenly feeling a little guilty. He had promised his sister to write her every day, and he hadn´t even so much as given a thought to it today, but what the hell was he supposed to write anyway?

_Dear Sarah,_

_Jack stayed the night and we played cards and fell asleep on the same bed. Unfortunately he didn´t say a word about you,_

_Love, David._

David frowned and shook his head. That didn´t sound nice at all, but what was he supposed to do or say? Jack hadn´t so much as even mentioned Sarah, but being the older brother he was he didn´t want to disappoint her. David sighed and hung his bag by the door, taking off his hat, before he moved to get some paper and ink so he would be able to write a letter to his sister, even if he still wasn´t quite sure what to write. He hadn´t made dinner yet either and he figured that, after being in full use this morning, the bathroom could do with some cleaning as well. David leaned back in his chair with a sigh. Sure, he had told his parents that he would be fine on his own, and he had thought that he would be able to handle it, but he might have not quite thought this through entirely. Nevertheless he would have to deal with it, because his family would be gone for a few more weeks and he surely wasn´t going to be a baby about this and cry for them to come home.

“It just takes some getting used to…” he muttered as he picked up the pen, trying to come up with something other than ‘Dear Sarah’ to write.

-

In the end, David decided not to make up anything and simply write Sarah that everything was well and that Jack had asked about her and their parents when David had told him that they were going on a vacation. Technically, that wasn´t even a lie, because they had talked about David´s family, just not about Sarah in particular. He had also included that he wouldn´t be writing her a letter every day, because there really wasn´t any sense and use in it. Even Sarah had to admit that Jack wouldn´t be talking about her every day, no matter how infatuated he was with her, because this was Jack, who hardly ever talked about his feelings at all. David shook his head and sealed the letter, trying to ignore the tug on his stomach.  He still hadn´t quite figured out what his problem with this whole situation was, but it had only been a day, so David figured that he would eventually get through to the root of his problem and that he had enough to worry about right now without this being added to the mix.

Once the letter was stored safely in his bag, just so David wouldn´t forget about it in the morning, he decided to warm up what was left of the soup he had made last night and at least start cleaning the bathroom while it was heating up. He still hadn´t quite forgotten about the weird feeling in his stomach, both about being all by himself and about whatever was going on with Sarah and Jack, but thankfully Davey could concentrate on his task of cooking and cleaning, so everything else was fading into the background a little. It honestly felt like he had been occupied for hours then, but when Davey checked the clock, after he was done with everything, it was barely after eight. He frowned, but then decided to just go to bed and maybe read a book, he had promised himself to catch up with his studies anyway, and it seemed like a good distraction from his thoughts.

-

David wasn´t quite sure when he had fallen asleep, but it seemed to become a habit to do it while he was occupied with other things. It was dark outside by now and he was contemplating on just turning over and going back to sleep, but the apartment had heated up by now and while it probably wasn´t better outside, David figured that he would take his chances at a breeze rather than dying of the heat. When he got up and opened the window the breeze he had hoped for didn´t come, but as soon as David poked his head outside he almost had a heart attack, because the sound of the window opening had woken up Jack, who had been sleeping on the stairs and then let out a rather startled noise, which he would later deny, of course.

“Jack what the hell?” he then let out, trying to take a deep breath to calm down his racing heart. Jack had gotten up and was running a hand through his hair as he seemed to be doing his best to actually look at David and not anywhere else.

“I was gonna come visit ya,” he then said and David raised an eyebrow.

“Then why are you sleeping on the fire escape?” he asked back, leaning against the window sill. For a moment David considered the possibility that he was dreaming, but he hadn´t dreamed of Jack before and if David dreamed then it was usually surreal situations and not something that could actually happen in real life.

“Because ya was asleep already,” Jack eventually said and David just looked at him for a moment. “I saw ya through the window and I didn´t want ta wake ya,”

David could feel a tug on his stomach and his expression changed from confused to soft, a smile tugging on the corners of his mouth. “Oh.” he then let out, deciding not to question the fact that the other boy could have simply gone back to the Lodging House after realizing that David was already asleep. “Come in, if you still want.” Of course the last part was unnecessary, because there wouldn´t have been any need to keep sitting on the stairs if he hadn´t wanted to still come in, but David figured that it was the polite thing to say, and he was always polite.

Jack´s slightly worried, and maybe embarrassed, expression was changing into a smile now as well and he climbed into the window as soon as David had stepped aside to let him in. Part of David knew that he should probably be at least a little upset with Jack for scaring him like that, but another part, a much bigger one, was happy that his best friend was here, so he decided not to say another word about the matter for now.

“I´m just gonna sleep in Sarah´s bed…I don´t wants be any trouble,” Jack´s voice brought him back and he looked over, biting his lip before he spoke again.

“Nah…we can just sleep in my parents´ bed again. More space and all.” David replied and for a moment he really felt like he needed to fight off a completely unnecessary blush. It wouldn´t be the first time they had slept in the same bed, even if it had never been intentional.

“Sure, if ya don´t mind,” Jack said after a moment of silence, in which David had held his breath, his famous smile on his face. Of course he didn´t mind, why would he? There was no reason they shouldn´t be sleeping in the same bed, the Newsies shared beds all the time, and they were both Newsies, right? David could tell that his mind was running in circles again and he willed it to slow down as he closed the window and then moved into the main room of the apartment with Jack.

He tried his best not to pay too much attention to when Jack stripped off his shirt and his pants because well, well that was the polite thing to do, right? Once they were both in bed, David could feel sleep coming back to him, because his brain had suddenly seemed to remember that he hadn´t gotten much sleep the night before.  
“Jack?” he eventually asked into the darkness, turning his head to face the other boy, even if he was aware that the other boy wouldn´t be able to see him.

“Yeah?”

“Why´d you come?” David eventually asked, holding his breath until he heard the answer coming from his friend.

“’Cause I know ya don´t like bein’ alone,”

David could feel his heart skipping a beat and he couldn´t help but smile. He wasn´t even sure how Jack could already read him so well, especially since they hadn´t known each other for more than a few weeks, but he wasn´t complaining, not when Jack was here to make sure that he was okay.

David smiled as he closed his eyes then, mumbling a “Thank you,” before he felt himself drifting off to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

This time it was David who woke up first. It was still early, he could tell because the sun hadn´t fully risen yet, but it was already casting a few shadows over the room and David blinked a few times, not even remotely surprised to find Jack sleeping just a few inches across from him. Of course he wasn´t surprised, this time they had actually went to bed together instead of just randomly falling asleep while playing cards, and somehow that thought made David´s stomach flutter. It was probably just because he hadn´t eaten yet and had no actual connection to the thought he had just been having, still he couldn´t help but turn it over in his head a few more times just to get that feeling back. It was something he had never felt before, at least not to such an extent, but David found that he liked it.

His eyes wandered around the room for a moment before they found their way back to Jack, who looked as peaceful as David had rarely, if not ever, seen him. Jack always seemed to be buzzing around, like he needed to keep himself busy, or distracted, which was pretty much the same in the end, but right now he just looked really peaceful _and beautiful._ David thought and immediately scolded himself for that. You couldn´t just call another boy beautiful, that word wasn´t used when it came to boys, they were handsome, or fancy.  ‘Beautiful’ was a word that he had only ever associated with girls, but right now neither fancy nor handsome really fit, Jack was beautiful, David couldn´t come up with another word, not even after having read the dictionary a couple of times.

“Y´are starin`,” Jack´s voice was quiet, but it still startled David and he could suddenly feel his heart hammering in his chest.

“I was not,” he then replied, trying his hardest to actually keep looking at Jack, because he knew that he would be losing this argument if he looked away. Not that he hadn´t already lost it, but David wanted to at least try and keep up the façade.

“You was, unless you sleep with ya eyes open,” Jack then said, and fortunately there was a smile on his face now. _At least he isn´t creeped out,_ David thought, letting out a breath he hadn´t been aware of holding. He could still feel his heart beating fast in his chest and for a moment David wondered if Jack could hear it. Of course that wasn´t possible, not when he didn´t have his ear pressed against David´s chest, which definitely wasn´t the case, but he still felt like it was beating so loudly that Jack could hear it and ask for the reason. Not that David would be able to actually give him one, sure, he had been startled, but technically his heart rate should have gone back down by now, but it hadn´t, and that was something that wasn´t usually the case, or at least it shouldn´t be.

“Why did you change your name?” David eventually asked, because apparently his brain had chosen this particular moment to come up with this question and to actually think it was a good idea to ask Jack about his past right now. _Not that there would ever be a good time,_ he then thought. _So maybe this one is as good as every other,_

Jack´s smile had faltered and he let out a long breath before turning onto his back, his eyes directed towards the ceiling, and David was mentally slapping himself for actually bring this up right now. There had been a reason he hadn´t asked about any of this before and it surely hadn´t been because he hadn´t found the time to bring it up. There was also that small, selfish part inside of David that thought that, maybe, Jack trusted him enough to actually bring the subject up himself, but that hadn´t been the case so far, and if he wasn´t ready after everything they had faced during the strike, then maybe it really had been a stupid idea to even think about bringing this up, but here they were and all David really wanted was to turn back time and just…

“Well, mostly because I wanted to make it harder for Snyder to find me after I had escaped from da refuge,” Jack interrupted his thoughts and David looked over at him, all the thoughts, which had been running crazy in his head, stopping for a moment. “I knew it wasn´t gonna to be easy if I wanted ta stay in New York,” the other boy then continued. “But I didn´t have the money ta go anywhere else, and savin´ up for Santa Fe would take a while,” Jack crossed his arms behind his head and continued to stare at the ceiling. “And I also kinda…didn´t wanna keep my father´s name. He wasn´t…he was, or probably is, a criminal and I ain´t, I always tried ta be honest, I only ever stole to make sure the boys had sumthin´ to eat,”

David hadn´t noticed that he had been holding his breath again, so he released it and then took a shaky one, trying not to sound like he was short on air, because he wasn´t quite sure he would be able to explain why. A silence was falling over the room then, but it didn´t seem to weigh too heavy, because David didn´t feel the need to say anything, he just kept looking at Jack, whose face was being illuminated by the sun now, since it had risen in the meantime. It wasn´t the first time David was looking at Jack, just _looking_ , and suddenly the feeling in his stomach was back and he couldn´t remember that it had ever happened this way before. Sure, all the times he had looked at Jack David had been fully engrossed in Jack´s words and his way to motivate people and to actually make them believe that they could change the world if they only tried hard enough, but right now, right now he seemed to be a completely different person than the Jack David thought he knew. He looked…vulnerable, quiet and thoughtful, or well, David wasn´t sure of those were the right words, but he couldn´t seem to put what he was thinking into words, and that was new too, because he had always been good with words, but Jack Kelly somehow managed to render him completely speechless without even trying.

A few moments passed before he spoke again, and David wasn´t even sure why he kept asking, but it just seemed like there was this part of him, a part that really wanted to know more about the boy next to him, not because he wanted to brag about knowing about Jack´s past, but because he was genuinely concerned about the other boy and wanted to help, even if it was just by listening.

“Would you have ever told anyone?” David´s voice was quiet when he asked and he felt a tug on his stomach as he watched Jack. “If we hadn´t found out, I mean.” The silence that followed seemed to be a little heavier than the one before and David was about to mentally slap himself again for pressing any further onto the subject when Jack turned his head to look at him and David was pretty sure that his heart stopped for a moment, even if that technically wasn´t possible and would also be very unhealthy.

“I probably would´ve told ya eventually,” he then said, and there was an honesty in his voice like David had never heard it before. “It might´ve taken a while but…ya know, I trust you. And I wouldn´t…I wouldn´t want ya to think I didn´t, even if that life is behind me,”

David had to, once again, remind himself to breathe and then just nodded, his eyes meeting with Jack´s. “Thank you,” he simply muttered, because he wasn´t quite sure if anything else he would have been able to say would have been enough. _And once again he´s rendered me speechless,_ David thought and he really couldn´t quite explain what it was about Jack that always kept him at a loss for words. Usually he would feel anxious about not knowing what to say, but with Jack, things were different. He couldn´t tell why, but somehow he always felt at ease when he was around the other boy, he trusted him, hell, of course he did. Why else would you run when a boy you had literally just met told you to? It was nice to know that Jack trusted him as well, though. Sure, the Newsies would always stand up for each other, but somehow David allowed himself to feel a little special when it came to Jack. Of course he would have never admitted that out loud, but that didn´t mean that the feeling wasn´t there.

“Ya starin´ again,” Jack´s voice pulled him from his thoughts once again and David focused on the other boy.

“So are you,” he then replied and couldn´t help the small smile that was tugging on the corners of his lips. Jack was smiling too, and suddenly it was hard to breathe again, but David couldn´t quite decide if it was bad. The usual reaction to not being able to breath would have been to panic, but David didn´t feel like panicking. He felt like he was on the edge, like he needed something to be able to breathe again properly, but he wasn´t sure what it was just yet. “Jack…” he eventually whispered and suddenly the other boy was much closer than he had been before and David couldn´t remember if he had moved, or if Jack had scooted closer, but he felt his breath catch in his throat and his heart beating faster. David opened his mouth to say something, but then he closed it again, because he really couldn´t come up with something to say, not when Jack was still smiling at him like that and when his face was just inches away from the other boy´s.

David resisted the urge to close his eyes and he could feel the warmth radiating from Jack´s body, a warmth that sent a shiver down his spine, and he was about to just scoot that tiny bit closer to close the distance between them, when there was a sudden and loud knock on the door and he could hear some of the boys yelling for him to get up and open the door.

David sat up straight immediately, his heart beating impossibly fast now, and he scrambled out of bed, praying to God that his face wasn´t as red from blushing as it felt, and didn´t look back at Jack again before he opened the door.

_Just breathe._


	6. Chapter 6

David´s heart was still pounding in his chest when he opened the door and found Race, Skittery and Boots standing there, looking at him. At least he had remembered how to breathe by now, because everything else would have been rather unfortunate. He tried his best to look normal and not like he had just almost kissed his best friend, who was still in his bed, or well his parents´ bed, to be exact and wow that had just made everything ten times worse. David didn´t dare to look back at Jack over his shoulder though, so instead he tried leaning against the door frame as he looked back at the boys.

“Everything alright?” he then asked, willing his heartbeat to slow down bit by bit. It was still rather early and he wasn´t quite sure why his friends were here at this hour, especially considering that they would have needed to have gotten up even earlier to be here right now.

“Apparently yeah,” Race said, pushing past Davey and into the apartment along with the others. Skittery had the decency to at least give him a smile while Boots just followed Race, yawning. “We were just looking for Jackie boy here, because Crutchie was worried. He said you was late yesterday and when ya didn´t come home last night he woke us up eventually and made us come here ta check,” Race said, leaning against the table and stifling a yawn.

“It ain´t the first time that I´m not comin´ back to the Lodging House,” Jack then said and for a moment David had almost forgotten that he was still there. He bit his lip and couldn´t help but watch as the other boy finished putting on his clothes and to his own horror David then realized that he was still only in his underwear. Sure, the boys were used to seeing each other like this, but he hadn´t had the time to get used to it, so he quickly, but as discreet as possible, made his way into his room to gather his clothes and get dressed. Once he was out of sight though, David leaned against the next best wall and let out a long breath, trying to get himself back together again.

_Stop overreacting!_ He then told himself. _You probably read too much into that. Only actual kisses count. Like the kiss Jack and Sarah shared at the Square._ That thought sparked another trail of thoughts in his mind then, and none of them were helping in any way. David had no idea how he was supposed to write a letter to Sarah after this morning, but thankfully he had already finished the first one and maybe he would have had forgotten about it when the time to write the next letter came around.

_Keep telling yourself that,_ the voice in his head said and David just shook his head, as if that would somehow shut it off. They boys were all ready to go when he emerged from the bedroom eventually and his eyes met with Jack´s for a moment. He wasn´t even sure what to say, but then again he probably wouldn´t have been able to say anything at all, especially not in front of the other boys. David just needed to get a grip on himself and stop making this a bigger deal than it was. They had both still been half asleep and Jack didn’t seem to be bothered by it at all, at least it didn´t seem that way. He was walking with Race and the other boys, chatting and laughing, as per usual, and yes, David was definitely overreacting, wasn´t he?

-

He didn´t actually get to talk to Jack until they were selling papers in the streets a little while later, and even then everything seemed normal. Sure, they weren´t having any deep or meaningful conversations (which made last night seem even more surreal), but David couldn´t really tell if Jack thought that what had happened this morning had been weird. Maybe he had really been overreacting and made something into more than it actually was, he had been half asleep anyway and he knew that the mind got dreams and reality mixed up more often than people knew.

_So you were dreaming about kissing Jack?_ The voice in his head asked and no, definitely not. Absolutely not.

“What?” Jack´s voice pulled David from his thoughts and he looked over at his friend, who seemed to have just sold his last paper.

“What?” David asked back, because he must have missed part of what Jack had said, or maybe even an entire conversation, he wasn´t quite sure anymore.

“Ya just said ‘absolutely not,’ out loud for no reason, unless ya suddenly have an invisible friend y’are talking to, but then ya gotta tell me Davey, just so I don’t accidentally sit on him,” Jack teased with a laugh and wow David could feel that he was blushing, but there was absolutely nothing he could do to stop it.

“I was just…thinking out loud,” he eventually managed, hoping that Jack wouldn´t ask what he had been thinking about, because for someone so smart David was a really bad liar, or maybe it was only Jack, who could read him like an open book, that always saw through his lies.

“Well ya better start sellin´ the rest of ya papers, because he boys have invited themselves over for tonight and I don´t think we have enough food to cook for ‘em all,” Jack then said with a laugh as he grabbed a handful of David´s papers to sell them when he didn´t get a response.

_Did…he just say ‘we’?_

-

Apparently Jack had meant what he had said, because once they had sold the rest of their papers he headed straight for the store to buy enough food to make sure no one would go to bed hungry tonight. David hadn´t really known what to say, because his brain had kind of shut down after Jack had implied that they were hosting some sort of party at what could be considered _their_ place right now and wow that was too much, even for him. He knew that he probably shouldn´t be reading so much into this, and it wasn´t like he actually had the time to do so when Jack and him carried all the stuff they had bought to their place, which was kind of difficult, since they were carrying too many bags at once, and later David didn´t know how they made it, but he knew that he had momentarily forgotten about the mess that was his mind at the moment. Unfortunately it returned rather quickly though, because it seemed like David just couldn´t quite get Jack out of his head, especially not after the moment they had shared this morning.

_If you could even call that a moment,_ he thought, because he wasn´t quite sure if he hadn´t just read too much into whatever had happened then, especially since Jack didn´t seem to have been bothered by it at all and that was usually a sign that David was thinking way too much about something and then Jack would tell him to stop worrying eventually. The problem with this was though, that Jack didn´t seem to see a problem here, and David couldn´t really tell anyone about what was going on in his head, so there was no one around to tell him to stop worrying, which just made everything worse.

David tried not to sigh out loudly, which he sometimes did when he was thinking too much and not paying attention, but the last thing he needed now was another discussion with Jack about something that was obviously not as important to the other boy as it was to him.

_What are you even talking about?_ He thought after a moment and shook his head before he went back to making the soup he had made a few days ago. Jack had decided that it was a great soup and that the boys would love it (David was very proud of himself that he hadn´t blushed too hard at the compliment) and so he had agreed and was taking care of the soup while Jack was making sandwiches to go with it. Once they were done and looking at their work, David was reminded of how amazingly well they worked together. They had been a great team from the day they had met, even if the road to them being friends had been a little…rocky, they had still managed to work and stick together to get the Newsies, and all the other kids in the city, what they deserved.

“The food isn´t gonna move, Davey.” Jack eventually said with a laugh and David frowned, looking up at his friend.

“What?” he then asked, glancing back at the food and then at Jack, just to make sure he hadn´t missed anything, but then he was met with Jack´s smile once more and wow David really needed to get a grip on himself.

“I don´t know, you was staring at the sandwiches so intensely I thought ya might want to make ‘em move,” Jack chuckled and David bit his lip before he shook his head, a little too fast maybe.

For a moment they were just looking at each other then, and David thought that he saw something shift in Jack´s eyes, something he couldn´t quite define, and he opened his mouth to say something, but nothing would come out. David´s eyes grew a little wider and then he couldn´t help but chuckle.

“What?” this time it was Jack´s turn to ask and David shook his head once more.

“Nothing,” he then managed, because this really wasn´t something he wanted to discuss with Jack, at all, but it just seemed too funny to him that someone could render him completely speechless. Him, the walking mouth, the one kid that always had a comeback or an idea, and then Jack Kelly came along and completely threw him off track with nothing but a few words or a smile.

“That ain´t fair Davey,” Jack then complained. “Ya don´t get to laugh at me and then don´t tell me what it was I did that was so funny,” he leaned in closer and yes, Jack Kelly had absolutely no understanding of personal space, which, surprisingly, didn´t seem to bother anyone around here. Not that it bothered David, at least not to the point where he couldn´t stand it, it was nice, to be close to Jack, to feel a hand on his shoulder or his back, maybe an arm around his waist. It wasn´t something David was used to, or thought he would ever have, because he´s never exactly had many (or none at all) friends at school.

“I wasn´t laughing about you, I promise. You know I never would,” David then said sincerely, the faint traces of a smile still on his face as he looked back at Jack. Jack who had quite literally almost swept him of his feet the first day they had met, who could read him like an open book, no matter how hard David tried to close himself off, who knew that he hated being alone and who would rather sleep out on the fire escape than to wake him after he had fallen asleep.

Suddenly it felt like the atmosphere from earlier today was back, when all David had done was watch Jack sleep and how the sun had illuminated his face and when their eyes met this time, David knew that Jack was feeling it too. Whatever it was, it was there, and it was hanging in the air between them, like it was waiting for something to set it off, but David didn´t know what to do, or if he really wanted to go down that road, but maybe he would have liked to be given the option, just in case he decided that… _Yes, David, decided what exactly?_

It wasn´t like he actually had an answer to that question, but it seemed like fate had decided to be kind to him today, because there was a knock on the door and David finally managed to look away. The moment was gone as quickly as it had snuck up on them and David moved towards the door so he could open it and let their friends in, who immediately invaded the space and seemed to make the silence, which had been there just a moment ago, seem like it had been a dream. David smiled at everyone, even taking the bottle of wine Spot had brought (God knows where he had gotten it from, but David didn´t want to ask) and put it into the cupboard, because he really didn´t want anyone getting ideas. Once he had closed the door he turned around and his eyes met with Jack´s once more. It was astounding, even to him, how quickly they could find each other in a crowd of people, without even having to call out the other´s name. David had heard of things like this, but he had never really thought he would get to experience them first hand. He couldn´t help but smile and of course the smile was returned by Jack, but David didn´t have the time to really appreciate it, because he was dragged away towards the food by Race, who seemed to be rather hungry and eager to get David to tell him that it was okay to eat.

_This is going to be a long night…_ David thought, but somehow he still found himself smiling.


	7. Chapter 7

The evening turned into night rather quickly and David honestly had to admit that he could get used to this. Not having the boys sleep over every day, of course, but having your own place and being able to invite them and to share what he had with them, to honestly just be happy and not feel alone for a while. Sure, he had the boys, and there was Jack, who came back because he knew that David felt alone, but he still couldn´t help the way he felt sometimes, so maybe his own place wasn´t the best idea, no matter how good it sounded right now.

 _Not that you could afford one anyway,_ he thought to himself and well, without having to support his parents he might have been able to get one, but that was a choice David knew he would never have to face because helping his parents would always come first. For a moment his thoughts went back to Sarah and his stomach immediately twisted. _Wow this has to stop, David._ He reminded himself, because he had literally done nothing wrong and there was no reason to feel bad about Jack staying over at his place, he had done that before, the only difference now was that the rest of the family was on vacation and well, Jack was practically family anyway, right? For a moment David thought about what would happen if Jack and Sarah got married and how that would actually make Jack family to David, but in a way that apparently didn’t work so well for him, because he immediately felt his stomach twist even further and he bit his lip, trying to shake off the thoughts.

“You´s thinking way too much again,” David looked up then and found Race grinning at him, a half-eaten sandwich in his hand, and honestly, he was surprised that there were still some left. The soup had been empty shortly after the boys had discovered it and David hadn´t been able to suppress a proud smile, which had been returned by Jack when their eyes had met across the room.

“How would you know?” he eventually replied, looking at Race, who was still grinning.

“Jack´s not the only one with great skills in watchin’ people, ya know.” Race then shrugged his shoulders. “Honestly, ya should just come and play cards with us instead of moping around here, ya can do that when we´s gone. Live a little, Dave.” Race chuckled before he turned around and moved towards where a group of boys was sitting on the ground, playing cards. They had tried playing around the table first, because it had seemed rather fancy to actually have a table to play on, but there were just too many of them and they had all ended up complaining that it was too cramped and that everyone was spying on each other, looking into their cards. _Not that they don´t always do that anyway,_ David had thought, but apparently it wasn´t okay if it was done so openly that there was practically no chance of not being caught.

“I…think I should start cleaning up a little,” David eventually said, more to himself than to anyone else, really, because Race had already taken his spot back with the boys and the few others, that weren´t playing cards, were scattered around the room, doing other things like reading or eating what was left of the sandwiches. David shook his head and was about to just make his way into the kitchen, to clean up, when his eyes met with Jack´s and the other boy pointed to an empty spot next to him. David shook his head quietly, because he wasn´t big on playing cards with the other boys, but Jack kept insisting as he patted the free spot and well, why not?  
It was alarmingly scary how easy it seemed to be for Jack to convince David and for a moment he thought about what would happen if Jack suddenly thought it would be a good idea to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge and if David would actually just follow him right after because he trusted this idiot way too much for someone that had learned not to trust people.

“I´m not jumping off a God damn bridge…” he muttered as he made his way over to the boys and sat down next to Jack, and thankfully nobody seemed to have caught it, because that wouldn´t have been easy to explain.

-

David wasn´t quite sure how long they had played cards, it could have been an hour or maybe three, he wasn´t sure. He had been a little distracted by the way Jack´s knee had brushed against his every now and then and how he had leaned in a little too close whenever he had showed David his cards. And by ‘too close’ he meant _‘technically_ _too close but not too close for my liking’,_ even if that didn´t make any sense, at least not to him, and usually David hated it when he couldn´t explain something. It left him on the edge, but with Jack, that he had learned, things were different. There was a lot he couldn´t explain when it came to Jack Kelly and weirdly enough he had come to like that in some sort of twisted way.

Most of the other boys were asleep by now, only a few of them were still up and talking when David finally made his way into the kitchen and started washing the dishes. He knew that it could have waited until the morning, but he wasn´t too tired and he would rather have everything done by the time he woke up than to go to sleep know, knowing that he would have to clean in the morning.

It wasn´t like he actually knew where to sleep tonight anyway, because all the beds were occupied and half the boys were already sleeping on the floor, which was covered in blankets, but David tried not to focus on that right now, he needed to clean up first. He was about to turn around and to gather the rest of the plates when he almost ran into Jack, who was trying to carry too many plates at once.

“Oh.” David let out and for a moment their eyes met and he could swear that the atmosphere from earlier was starting to build up again, even over something as stupid as dirty plates and wow, he was screwed. “T-Thanks…” he then muttered, taking the plates from Jack before turning back to the sink so he could clean them and wouldn´t have to keep looking at Jack, because David was pretty sure that he was blushing, and there was really no explanation for that.

Once they were done with cleaning he stepped away from the cupboard, in which he had stowed away the last plates, and looked around. By now everyone was really fast asleep, and for a moment David asked himself how some of the boys could sleep in those weird positions, but then the proof was right there in front of him and as long as he didn´t have to try it himself he would let them be.

He turned to Jack, who was leaning against the table, then and was momentarily at a loss for words.

 _This really needs to stop!_ David then reminded himself. His nickname was _The Walking Mouth_ God damn it, and not David ‘ _I turn into a babbling mess or fall completely silent whenever Jack Kelly looks at me’_ Jacobs.

“I don´t think we´s gonna find a place to sleep ‘round here,” Jack eventually said with a little smile as he looked over the all the boys sleeping around the place. David was about to reply, even though he wasn´t sure what else to say other than to agree with Jack, when the other boy grabbed two blankets from the bed (the boys sleeping in it wouldn´t mind, and even if, they weren´t awake to complain anyway) and then motioned for David to follow him.

David did, because that was what he did, he trusted Jack to not wanting to jump out the window for no apparent reason, and he was right. It only took him a minute to realize that the other boy was making his way up to the roof and for some stupid reason David´s heart was beating a little faster at that.

“Thank God it´s summer,” Jack eventually chuckled as they had finally reached the top of the stairs and he looked around before spreading out the first blanket. “I don´t think this would´ve gone over very well during winter,”

“Probably not, no.” David agreed with a smile as he watched Jack spread out one of the blankets and then moved to sit next to him when the other boy patted, once more, onto the spot next to him.

It was a nice night, really. It wasn´t too cold or too hot, and if David was sweating a little well, then it was probably not due to the temperature, but he really didn´t want to think about that right now. It wasn´t an appropriate thing to think about and he really didn´t want to go back to hearing Sarah´s voice in his head, reminding him of the promise he had made, not when it was so nice to just sit beside Jack and look up at the stars.

-

“Do you think the sky´s different in Santa Fe?” Jack asked after a while as he draped the other blanket, which he had brought, over them and for a moment David felt his stomach twist. It was stupid to think that, suddenly, Jack had stopped thinking about Santa Fe, it had been his dream to go there for a long time and just because he had stayed didn´t mean that he had completely forgotten about it.

“I don´t know, maybe.” David said carefully, turning to look at his best friend for a moment. “Probably, yes. I mean…it´s proven that the stars are different in other places, the sky never looks the same anywhere. So different, yes, but that doesn´t mean it looks better in Santa Fe.”

Jack simply nodded as he laid down on his back then and David joined him eventually, forcing himself to look back up at the sky so he wouldn´t be caught staring.

“My mother gave me that book when I was little, ya know?” Jack eventually said, breaking the silence, and David bit his lip. “She´s always said that things would be better somewhere else, that there was a place where there would be work fo’ my father and that he would stop not coming home and stop spending all da money we had on alcohol to forget that he just couldn´t get a job,”

David simply listened, feeling his heart beat faster in his chest. This was what he had hoped for, he had wanted Jack to trust him, to tell him things about himself, but for someone who had imagined this to happen about a million times he sure was at a loss for words right now.

“I don´t think she meant that Santa Fe was that place in particular,” Jack then continued, his eyes fixed on the sky. “But I always made it out ta be that place, ya know? Because it sounded better than New York, everything sounded better than New York.”

There was another silence then, in which David tried to come up with the courage to ask the question he had been thinking about ever since Jack had mentioned Santa Fe. He wasn´t quite sure if he wanted to hear the answer though, but he also knew that it would just keep nagging on him if he didn´t ask and he wasn´t sure if, on top of everything else, he could handle that.

“And…now?” David eventually asked. “I mean…does _everything_ still sound better than New York?”

It was the first time, ever since he had started talking, that Jack turned his head to look at David and when their eyes met it was suddenly hard to breathe. David bit his lip and reminded himself to breathe through his nose so he wouldn´t faint.

“Nah,” Jack eventually said and scooted a little closer so their shoulders and arms were touching under the blanket. “New York sounds pretty good right about now,” he then added and David couldn´t help but return the other boy´s smile.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Yes, he had always stared at Jack for a little longer than necessary, and he had never really minded the fact that Jack didn´t seem to care about the concept of personal space, but David couldn´t even pinpoint the moment when he had, apparently, falling completely and utterly in love with this idiot right in front of him."

The next thing David remembered was waking up curled against Jack and alright yes, he was in big trouble. The other boy was still asleep, or so it seemed, and David knew that the right thing to do was to wake him up, but Jack was warm pressed up against him and he knew his best friend didn´t sleep as much as he should, so the logical thing was to let him sleep a little longer, wasn´t it?

The sun had just begun to rise and they would have at least another half an hour before it would be completely up, but David wasn´t quite so sure if he could stay still for that long. Part of him liked this, the quiet, being close to Jack, but another part, which mostly contained of his racing heartbeat and the fluttering in his stomach, had him wondering if he might just have a heart attack if he stayed close to Jack any longer.

_I could just pretend to go back to sleep, and let him be the one to wake up first, then he would have to deal with the awkwardness. Unless he doesn´t think it´s awkward, then it´s probably going to be awkward for me once I wake up, or pretend to wake up, after him._

“You dreamin’ with ya eyes open?” Jack suddenly asked with a chuckle and within two seconds, David had sat up straight, his heart pounding impossibly fast, and God damn it this really needed to stop!  
“No. No…I was just…thinking.” He muttered, feeling the heat rise up in his cheeks, so he did his best not to look at Jack. Not that looking at Jack was ever a good idea if he didn´t want to blush, but apparently David didn´t learn from his mistakes. “I should…yeah, I should probably check up on the boys,” he then said with a nod, mostly to reassure himself, before getting up, almost stumbling over his own feet, and climbing down the fire escape without looking back at Jack once (something he was very proud of, thank you very much.)

-

As expected, most of the boys had still been asleep when David entered the apartment and he, once again, wondered how they could sleep in those weird positions with limbs twisted and everyone at least half on top of each other. He shook his head, still trying to calm down his racing heartbeat, because honestly, this couldn´t be healthy, when he heard footsteps behind him and David knew that Jack had followed him, which was his right, obviously, but it wasn´t really helping with anything.

“Ya okay, Davey?” There was a hand on his shoulder then and David bit his lip, because when the hell did this happen? Yes, he had always stared at Jack for a little longer than necessary, and he had never really minded the fact that Jack didn´t seem to care about the concept of personal space, but David couldn´t even pinpoint the moment when he had, apparently, falling completely and utterly in love with this idiot right in front of him.

“I…yes. Of course, I´m perfectly fine.” _And screwed._ He thought, because how the hell was he supposed to explain this to Sarah? How the hell was he supposed to stand by and watch when Jack got married to someone else, possibly even David´s own sister?

_Get it together!_ He quickly reminded himself and taking a deep breath before finally meeting Jack´s eyes. “I was just…making sure the apartment was still alright, you never know with these boys.” He nodded, trying not to fiddle with his hands too much, because David knew it made him look like he didn´t know what he was doing. “I should…make coffee, for when everyone wakes up,” he then decided with another nod and quickly moved into the kitchen, leaving Jack to stand by himself.

-

It wasn´t long until everyone had woken up then and was gratefully accepting the coffee that David had made for all of them. Granted, most of them were still half asleep, even when they decided that it was time to leave, and David knew that half of them would fall back asleep as soon as they had made it to the Lodging House, not that he didn´t understand them, he would have probably still been tired as well if he hadn´t awoken with such a start that had sent his mind spiralling.

“At least we don´t have ta go all the way down ta Brooklyn, like Race.” Romeo grinned as they were gathering their things.

“That´s because we don´t jump as soon as Spot Conlon calls,” Specs added with a chuckle and was just able to duck away from the pillow that came flying towards him.

“Shut up.” Race grumbled, threatening to throw another pillow when Romeo opened his mouth again. The other boy changed his mind then and just grinned instead as they all made their way over to the door, waving goodbye to David before disappearing through the door. Once again it was just him and Jack, who apparently had decided to stay around for a little longer, in the apartment and David bit his lip, telling himself to stay calm.

“I´mma help ya clean up,” Jack then said, and David caught a glimpse of a smile when he glanced over at the other boy, nodding.

“Yes. Thank you,” he then managed before moving to collect all the used coffee mugs that were standing on every possible surface in the apartment while Jack went to get the blankets and make the beds. It eventually took them a lot longer to clean the apartment than David had anticipated, and he had to admit that it was partly because he kept finding himself staring at Jack when he was bending over to pick up the blankets and yes, that wasn´t exactly the best idea, but somehow he couldn´t help himself.

It wasn´t until past midday that they were actually finished and David leaned against the sink, letting out a sigh. They had ended up cleaning the bathroom as well, because David had insisted that it was necessary after a horde of boys had stayed overnight, and he hadn´t been too wrong about that, even Jack had to admit that. The other boy was sitting in a kitchen chair right now, looking over at David.

“I feel like we should get some lunch or I might die,” he then said with a grin and David couldn´t help but chuckle.

“We definitely deserve something to eat after this,” he then replied and this felt oddly domestic, like so many things had in the last few days, and suddenly David realized that he was walking on dangerous territory. Not that walking with Jack Kelly wasn´t dangerous in itself, but this was different. He knew that the most logical thing to do to get over this crush was to stay away from Jack, but how was he supposed to explain that to Jack without actually telling him why?  
“Whatcha thinkin’ ‘bout now?” Jack then asked and suddenly he was way closer than he had been just a moment before and David´s breath caught in his throat.

“I…uh…n-nothing…” he muttered, his heart rate picking up once again, and in retrospective he should have just walked away then, because he hadn´t been sleeping a lot, and he had spent far too much time with Jack, Jack who was driving him crazy, so he was in no position to make any important decisions, but his brain didn´t seem to care about all of that, because suddenly David was leaning forward and before he could stop himself his lips were pressed up against Jack´s.

He couldn´t quite describe what he felt, because apparently Jack Kelly did render him speechless, in more than one way, but all he knew was that, despite how wrong this seemed, it felt incredible. It wasn´t until Jack wrapped his arms around him and pushed him back against the kitchen counter that David realized that, _Oh shit, he´s kissing me back!_ And while that should have been something to be happy about, his brain immediately came up with about a million reasons why this was wrong and not acceptable and he eventually managed to push the other boy away.

David was panting and holding on to the counter for support, because he felt that, if he let go, he would probably not be able to stand up on his own.

“What´s wrong?” Jack then asked, his pupils blown wide and David could feel his stomach twisting at the other boy´s words. He wasn´t even sure where to begin to explain everything that was wrong with this, but he also didn´t quite trust his own voice at the moment, so he just stared at Jack, his heart pounding in his chest. “Davey?”

David bit his lip then and shook his head, finally able to look away from Jack. “So many things,” he then whispered with a sigh. “I just…can we please just forget that happened?” he was close to sounding like he was begging Jack, even though, in any other situation, he wouldn´t have admitted that.

“What? No. Why?” Jack asked back and it almost sounded naïve, like he really didn´t understand why this couldn´t be happening. David looked over at his best friend then, still biting his lip, before he realized that, maybe, just maybe, Jack really didn´t see the problem with this.

“Jack…” he then muttered. “I…please. You´re a boy, I´m a boy…you´re practically dating my sister. I know you still want to go to Santa Fe, or any other place, I want to go to college, become a journalist. This is never going to work out,” It wasn´t like David hadn´t turned this over in his head a million times, but he hadn´t been able to find one scenario that didn´t end with heartbreak for either of them.

“That´s all bullshit and ya know it.” Jack replied, disbelief clearly visible on his face. “It´s not like it doesn´t happen all da time. Or do ya think Race spends his nights in Brooklyn playin’ cards with Spot?” he shook his head. “I did like Sarah, but…it´s different. I just…thought it was impossible for ya to like me, so I thought…”

“She was the next best thing,” David finished Jack´s sentence, some sort of bitterness in his voice.

“No! That´s not what I meant,” Jack was quick to say, taking a step closer to David, but the other boy shook his head and moved away from the kitchen counter, glad that his legs seemed to have decided to carry him after all.

“Jack, please.” He then said, turning around with a sigh. “Just…it´s not going to work, can we please just forget about it? You´ll find someone you´ll actually love and then you can go and marry her, have a family and everything you want and…”

“I´ll never love anyone more than I love ya,” Jack then cut him off and David could feel his heart skip a beat almost at the same time as his stomach began to twist.  
“Don´t say that…” he then muttered, feeling a hand on his shoulder and suddenly it was hard to breathe. “Please just…” David started and then trailed off when he felt Jack´s body pressed up against his back and God damn it, why was it so hard to think when the other boy was around?

This was wrong on so many levels, he knew that, but it also felt way too good and David felt like he was going insane. He knew that he could just go for it now, to turn around and kiss Jack and forget about all the troubles, even if it was just for a while, but he knew that reality would catch up with them sooner than later and he wasn´t sure if he could handle it. David could deal with the heartbreak of a love that just didn´t work out, but he knew he wouldn´t be able to survive having had Jack, knowing the other boy loved him, and then watching him marry some girl, or even Sarah.

_It would kill me._

He bit his lip, harder than before, and the blood he eventually tasted was what brought David back to reality, and he stepped away from Jack then, feeling the shakiness return to his legs as he did his best to keep his eyes on the other boy. “It´s not going to work,” he then insisted, feeling his stomach twist even more when he saw the hurt in Jack´s eyes.

“Davey I-“  
“No! Jack, please. Just…go. Go!” there was a sudden flashback to not long ago, when they had both stood in a dark alley, having just escaped from Pulitzer´s house. Jack had told him to run and David had done as he was told, because he always did what Jack told him, but not this time. Not when he needed to protect both of them from something that could only be a train wreck.  
For a moment their eyes met and David thought he was going to throw up, because he could see everything in Jack´s eyes, confusion, anger and the worst thing imaginable: the hurt of being pushed away once again.

“Jack…” David whispered, but the other boy didn´t say another thing as he pushed past David and out of the apartment, slamming the door shut on his way out. David just stood there for a moment, feeling the tears rise up in his eyes and his legs almost gave in under him, but he couldn´t move.

He wasn´t sure for how long he stood there eventually, but it all suddenly seemed so unreal, like this couldn´t have just happened to him, but the pain David felt when he thought about Jack and the hurt in the other boy´s eyes was real and suddenly it was hard to breathe again.

He left the window open that night, whether it was out of habit or hope, David couldn´t tell, all he knew was that Jack didn´t come back, and that was when he realized that yes, he had finally managed to completely and totally screw everything up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, this is Chapter 8 already, I didn´t actually think I was going to have so many of them, and we´re still not finished, but thanks for everyone who has been reading and following the story so far! <3


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "David had been taught not to lie. As long as he could remember that had been one of the most important things his father had taught him, but he wasn´t lying, he was just, like Jack would put it, improving the truth, right? He knew that Jack was stubborn, and that he maybe needed some time to himself, and group of yelling boys was probably not the best company then."

Sleeping hadn´t really been an option tonight, or at least that´s how it felt when David eventually watched the sun rising and the light fell into his bedroom. He felt like all he had done the entire night was stare at the ceiling and, at every small noise, had looked over to the window, hoping Jack would have come back.

Of course it was stupid, because David himself had told Jack to leave, but Jack was stubborn, if nothing else, and maybe a little part of David had hoped that the other boy just wouldn´t care what he had told him and that he would have come back, shoved David against the next best wall and would have kissed him to tell him that it didn´t matter what everyone else thought, that they could make this work.

“Oh God…” David groaned, burying his face in the pillow for a moment. Why was he even thinking about all these things? He should just put this behind himself and look forward. It wasn´t like heartbreak was something extraordinary. It happened every day, it would happen to Sarah when she would realize that Jack didn´t like her as much as she thought he did. David groaned again at that thought because, honestly, what had he ever done to end up in such a mess? He briefly considered just not going to work today, because he really, really didn´t want to see Jack (and at the same time he did, which was probably the biggest problem here) but he needed the money and David also didn´t want any of the boys to asks questions, because he sure as hell didn´t have the answers.

He sighed, his gaze directed towards the ceiling once more. He missed Jack. How could he be missing him already?! David didn´t know when it had become weird to sleep alone, but he missed the other boy´s warm body next to his own and the way their arms would brush together under the blanket, sometimes accidentally and sometimes not. It was a little terrifying, honestly, just how used David had gotten to have Jack around after a few weeks when, in his entire life, he had never really been the type of boy to even bring friends home from school, simply because he never really had them in the first place.

Things were different these days, he had the Newsies, and they were more than his friends, they were all like brothers, that was something David had learned, so why couldn´t he just be a brother to Jack?

_Because all you want to do is kiss him, you idiot!_ He then thought and let out another groan before finally sitting up. “Stop making this such a big deal…” David then muttered before he finally got up and got ready for work.

-

Something was different when he reached Newsies Square this morning. The boys were all crowded together, talking, or well, everyone was trying to say something at the same time, so nothing really made sense, or was understandable, not even to David. He furrowed his brows and eventually patted Race on the shoulder, who was currently arguing with Skittery about, yeah, about what?  
“What´s up?” David asked and Race turned around then, but instead of complaining, like he would have usually done for being interrupted, he fell silent, much like the rest of the group did as soon as they realized that David was there.  
“Dave,” Race then said with a nod, a hand resting on David´s shoulder. “Have you seen Jack?”

David felt his stomach twist almost immediately, but he tried not to let his discomfort, or guilt? show, so instead he just shook his head. “No, no I didn´t. I thought he was with you guys,”

He tried sounding as unaffected as possible, but in reality his brain was coming up with hundreds of possible scenarios of what could have happened to Jack, or where he could have gone, and none of them ended particularly good for either of them.

“Nah, Crutchie says he saw him comin’ in late last night, but he didn´t stay too long, left almost right after he came on. We was all sleepin’ though, so we figured he might have gone back to your place,” Race explained and it was only now that David noticed Crutchie, who was sitting on the steps a few feet apart from the others, looking down at the ground. David could feel his stomach twist even further at that, poor Crutchie was probably worried sick about his best friend and David couldn´t blame him, because he felt the same.

_Plus the guilt of making him leave in the first place,_ the voice in his head reminded him and David had to bite his lip.

“I´m sure he´s fine,” he still found himself saying then. “He told me that he had something important to do and that it might take longer, I didn´t think it was going to take all night and day though, but I´m sure he´s going to be back soon.” David nodded, as if to reassure himself, before speaking up again. “And he surely wouldn´t want us to miss a day of work just because he forgot to tell us where he went.”

David had been taught not to lie. As long as he could remember that had been one of the most important things his father had taught him, but he wasn´t lying, he was just, like Jack would put it, improving the truth, right? He knew that Jack was stubborn, and that he maybe needed some time to himself, and group of yelling boys was probably not the best company then. He bit back a sigh and then moved over to sit next to Crutchie while the other boys eventually got in line to buy their papers.

“I`m sure Jack´s fine,” David found himself saying eventually and he hadn´t even realized how desperately he was trying to make himself believe just that, until his eyes met with Crutchie´s.

“Jack never goes away without tellin’ me,” Crutchie then said with a shrug. “But you´s probably right, Dave. If Jack said he´s got somethin’ important to do then that´s what he has ta do,” he added and wow, David hadn´t know that he could feel even worse. He still tried to force a smile though, patting his friend´s shoulder.

“Yeah. I´m sure he´ll be back in no time,”

Of course he wasn´t, and David was miserable. He hadn´t sold too many papers yet, which was mostly because he had chosen to stick around Newsies Square and sell his newspapers there, just in case Jack would show up. He hadn´t, and by now David was honestly worried. Sure, Jack was stubborn, but he had also never seen the other boy so hurt. The sheer thought of the way Jack had looked at him last night, so broken and hurt, like he had never seen him before, made David want to throw up. That was also the reason he was spending his lunch break sitting on the bencg near Jacobi´s, the unsold newspapers stacked next to him, with his head in his hands.

Denton found him that way a little later and stopped, just looking at the boy for a moment. He hadn´t seen David this miserable ever since he had told the boys that he couldn´t be printing the news about the strike anymore, and back then it had already killed him to see this smart and bright boy so sad. He shook his head and moved over, pushing the newspapers aside to sit down.

“Rough day?” he asked eventually and it was only then that David actually noticed that someone had taken the place beside him. For a moment he had hoped that it was Jack, which was completely insane, because of course Jack wouldn´t just come back to him after what had happened, and he had recognized Denton´s voice immediately, but there had still been that tiny spark of hope somewhere. David couldn´t help but sigh as he lifted his head from his hands. “Yes, kind of.” He managed then, because he couldn´t tell Denton the truth, he couldn´t tell anyone the truth and while he had been used to keeping his feelings bottled up before it was more difficult now, because suddenly he had all these people that cared about him, and suddenly there had been Jack, Jack who didn´t always understand what David was talking about, but he listened, even when David was rambling, and he hadn´t been alone with his problems anymore, but now the only person he could really talk to had turned into the person he couldn´t talk to anymore and David had no idea how to deal with that.

“I thought the headline wasn´t that bad when I read the paper this morning,” Denton spoke up again and David turned to look at him.

“Headlines don´t sell papes, Newsies do.” He immediately replied and felt his stomach twist again. “Which means I´m a lousy one today,” David sighed once more and closed his eyes then. He could feel a headache coming, which was probably from not sleeping and thinking too much, but somehow it didn´t matter, because this day couldn´t possibly get any worse.

“Don´t be too hard on yourself,” Denton pulled him back from his thoughts, patting David´s shoulder. “Everyone has rough days, they pass. Hey, I´ve been meaning to ask you about how your family is doing anyway, they sent a nice postcard.” He smiled. “How about you come to dinner tonight? You can bring Jack too. It´ll be nice to catch up,”

David nodded slowly, because honestly, what was he going to say? He didn’t even know if he could be around Jack right now, or if Jack would ever want to be around him again, and that was only aside the obvious fact that he had no idea where the other boy was.

_Oh God…_

David could feel his stomach twisting again and by now he wasn´t sure whether it was because he hadn´t eaten since last night, or because of how awful he felt, but truth be told: It was probably a mix of both.

“Unless…you´re busy tonight. We can meet up another day,”

“What? No…no I´d…” David didn´t make it any further then, because someone had stepped up to the bench, their arms crossed, and was looking down at them. David looked up then and could practically feel his mouth fall open when he noticed that there was, in fact, Spot Conlon standing right in front of him, staring him down.  
“Walkin’ Mouth,” he then said, not even acknowledging Denton´s presence. “We need ta talk,” and with that he grabbed David´s arm and pulled him away from the bench so Denton wouldn´t be able to hear them. David had no idea what was going on, and he managed to shoot Denton an apologetic look before he finally shook off Spot´s hand.

“What the hell?” he then asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest, much like Spot had just done. “Would you like to explain to me what you´re doing here and why you´re dragging me around like this?”

Spot didn´t seem to be affected by David´s harsh voice at all, he simply leaned on his cane, watching the other boy for a moment. “Listen, I´m tryin’ to help here, so unless you wanna watch Jack do somethin’ stupid I´d say ya better shut up and listen,”

David felt a tug on his stomach at the mention of Jack, his brain immediately coming up with another hundred things that could have happened to his best friend, and suddenly it was hard to breathe.

“What´s wrong with Jack?” he asked carefully, which only caused Spot to raise an eyebrow.

“I think ya know that better than I do,” the other boy replied and shook his head. “Look, I… _my spies_ saw him sittin’ at the train station earlier, and we both know that trains and Jack Kelly don´t go well together,”

David stood still for a moment, like his brain was trying to process the information it had just gotten, and when it finally clicked, he was already running.


	10. Chapter 10

David had already been out of breath half way to the train station, but somehow he was still running. He knew that Jack had enough money to buy a ticket to Santa Fe, and he also knew that Jack made decisions based on what he felt in a certain moment and didn’t think of the consequences. David had no idea what he was supposed to do, because he was someone that made decision based on what was logical and not on what he felt, he was the complete opposite of Jack, and this couldn´t work out but damn it, he couldn´t just let him go!

His legs were aching and his lungs were burning by the time David finally reached the train station. It was busy for a week day and he looked around, trying to find Jack, even if it was technically impossible to find a specific person in a crowd full of moving people. They had always been different though. Even after only knowing him for a couple of days, David had managed to find Jack and stay close to him whenever they had been surrounded by people. It was like their bodies had just gravitated towards each other without them even standing a chance to change it. Not that David had wanted to, because being around Jack was nice, being close to him was nice and well, at least now he knew why he had felt that way, or both of them had, really.

He stood still for a moment, looking around, and then took a deep breath. He needed to focus. Looking around manically for Jack wouldn´t get him anywhere but closer to insanity. David´s eyes fell on the ticket booth then and he made his way over, not caring about the people that had been queueing up and were now complaining.

“I´m sorry, but this is really important!” he said, leaning in close. “I need to know if there´s a train to Santa Fe leaving today!” the woman behind the counter gave him a look, crossing her arms and David bit his lip. “Please?” he then tried and soon enough the woman´s eyes flickered down to the notebook that was in front of her on the table.

“There´s a train leaving in two minutes from platform 3, if you want to catch it you´d better be quick. That would be…” David didn’t wait until she had finished, and he only felt a tiny bit sorry, because he had more important things to do, and he could always go back later and apologize, right? But if Jack got on that train, then David wasn’t sure if he would ever be able to see or speak to him again.

He made his way through the crowd, quickly, bumping into people and almost falling over twice, but somehow he managed to keep himself upright as he stumbled onto the platform, his eyes growing wide. The train was already starting to move and damn it, how was he supposed to find Jack if he was already inside?! David was still running though, trying to get a look through the windows to see if his best friend was somewhere inside, but he couldn´t get a good look.

“Jack! Jack!” David wasn´t sure when he had started yelling, but it didn´t matter. People were staring at him, yelling back even when he bumped into them, but it wasn´t until the train was gone from the station, and only a small outline in the distance, that David stopped. His lungs were burning again and he could feel his voice cracking when the last “Jack!” left his lips, but it didn´t seem to matter.

David suddenly felt like he was about to throw up. How was he supposed to ever find Jack now? What if he decided that Santa Fe wasn´t for him and just went somewhere else without telling anyone? How was he supposed to explain to Crutchie, to Les, and to all the boys, that Jack was gone? Why did Jack leave him to do that? It wasn´t fair, this wasn´t David´s job to do. He couldn´t always fix things for Jack. He had come to fix what he had done wrong, but how was he supposed to do that if Jack didn´t let him?

The platform had emptied a little, but David hadn´t noticed. He was still staring off into the distance and his brain knew that he was being stupid and pathetic, but it was like his legs were refusing to move because his body was putting all it had into stopping him from crying.

“Well that was quite a show ya put on there,” a voice said with a chuckle and finally David managed to turn around. “And all of that for me? I´m impressed,”

David could feel his stomach drop as he finally moved, only to find Jack sitting on the bench a few feet away. Being in such a hurry earlier, and due to all the people who had been on the platform, he must have missed him the first time. He wasn´t quite sure how to feel then, part of him wanted to kiss Jack, which was completely inappropriate, obviously, but the other part wanted to slap him and leave. David didn´t do either of those things though, instead he sat down next to Jack, looking down at his shoes.

“You weren´t on the train,” he said after a while, kicking a small stone and watching as it tumbled over the ground and down onto the railroads.

“Nah,” Jack said with a shrug as he looked over at David, just watching the other boy for a moment. “It´s what ya do to me, ya know?” he then added. “I can´t just leave ya, no matter how badly I want to, or how mad I am at ya, `s just not possible,”

David could feel a tug on his stomach then and he looked up, almost involuntarily, his eyes meeting with Jack´s. “R-Really?” he managed and momentarily hated himself for being so weak. He shouldn´t be feeling this way about Jack, he should stick to what he had told him last night, but why was it so hard to not feel? He had spent years bottling up everything, putting up a façade and pretending like he was fine, so why was Jack able to tear down all these walls so effortlessly?

“Of course,” Jack replied immediately. “I might be improvin’ the truth from time to time, but I always mean what I say, ya should know that,”

And Jack was right. David did know. He had always trusted Jack, and maybe that was the reason why the other boy was able to get under his skin so easily. Sure, there had been a rough patch when Jack had suddenly turned on them and started working for Pulitzer again, but still, David had never stopped trusting him. Jack had been the first person to somehow earn David´s trust without even trying and that was something you didn´t just throw away, right?

“Denton invited us for dinner tonight,” he eventually said and he knew that it was completely off topic, but they couldn´t talk about their feelings, or the situation they were in, in such a public space. If David was being honest then he wasn´t even quite sure if they could talk about it anywhere, because the last time hadn´t gone over so well, but he knew that they had to eventually. He had no idea how they were supposed to do this, and if he could convince Jack to be ‘just friends’, or convince himself for that matter, but they had to at least try, because apparently losing Jack was not an option.

“He did? What did ya say?” Jack asked then, still looking over at David. There was just something about this boy, there had been from the moment they met, that completely threw Jack off track. He had never really felt this way before, David drove him insane, but in the best way, and Jack Kelly would be damned if he didn´t at least try all that was in his power to convince the other boy that this wasn´t a hopeless case.   
“Well I was kind of interrupted by Spot telling me that you were on your way to leave the city,” David then said, biting his lip as his eyes met with Jack´s once again. “So I had to run,”

Jack couldn´t help but laugh. “Yeah, I saw.” He then said, getting up from the bench and stretching as he stifled a yawn. He wasn´t even quite sure for how long he had been sitting on this bench, but it had been quite a while and he was a little surprised that he could still stand up straight. David punched his shoulder then, probably as a response to Jack´s teasing, but he couldn´t help but laugh again. “So…since I´m not goin’ anywhere, we can go to that dinner, can´t we?” he then asked, grabbing his bag and beginning to walk next to David as they left the platform.

David was holding his hand from punching Jack´s shoulder a little harder than he had intended, but he couldn´t quite hide the smile that was tugging on the corners of his lips. “Yes, we can go. If he still wants to have us,” he then said. He had never really agreed to coming, which was why David wasn´t quite sure if the offer still stood, but there was no harm in trying, right?  
“But first you´ve got to go back and see the boys,” he then added, looking over at Jack as they walked. “They were all worried. I told them that you told me you had something important to do and would be back soon,” David explained and Jack nodded, a smile on his face.

_He always knows what to say, doesn’t´he?_

“Thanks, Davey.”

-

The boys were more than happy to see Jack back, and of course he had a colourful story to tell them, explaining why he had missed a day of work. Sometimes David wondered whether or not they all truly believed him or of they chose to, but in the end it didn´t really matter. What mattered was that things were fine again, or at least as okay as they could be.

David managed to go home and get changed before he left the apartment to meet up again with Jack. He had put on his best shirt and vest, much like Jack. He wasn’t quite sure where Jack had been hiding the outfit he was wearing right now but damn, he looked even better than usual and that really wasn´t helping the matter.

“Hey,” David muttered, and he was really, really trying not to stare, but it wasn´t as easy as it sounded in his head.

“Hey,” Jack gave him a smile in return and it almost felt like everything had gone back to normal, except for the fact that David knew how Jack felt, and he finally understood how he felt about the other boy himself, and that didn´t make anything easier, not at all.

_Get a grip on yourself, David!_

They walked up the stairs to Denton´s apartment then, but before David could knock on the door, Jack reached for his hand, stopping him.

“What?” was all David managed to ask before Jack was leaning in to kiss him again. It was different than the last time, less forceful and quite…tame, honestly, but it was still nice and David could feel himself blushing as the other boy pulled back.

“Y´are not gonna send me away again, are ya?” Jack asked and David really wanted to punch him, or kiss that smug look off his face, because really, that wasn´t fair. He didn´t do either of those things though, because he wasn´t going to give Jack the satisfaction he wanted, the other boy already had too much power over him anyway, so instead he just muttered “Shut up,” and knocked on the door, hoping that the blush had worn off, because there was really no way he could explain this to Denton, not even with his smart mouth.


	11. Chapter 11

Of course the blush had not worn off by the time the door was opened, but if Denton had noticed anything then he had the decency not to mention it. “Boys!” he exclaimed instead, a smile on his face. “I wasn´t sure if you were going to make it after David took off like that earlier,” he then added, opening the door a little wider so they could enter.

David ran a hand through his hair as he tried to laugh it off. “Yeah.” He said with a shrug. “I just remembered that I had something important to do.” He had never really been a good liar, which was probably a result of his father telling him that lying was bad and not something honest people did, so David had listened to him and never lied. Until he had met Jack, that was.

“Don´t worry about it,” Denton smiled, leading them towards the table where he had already began setting up the plates and the food. “I figured you would find a way to send me a message should you not be able to come,”

David nodded as he sat down, his eyes meeting with Jack´s briefly across the table. They had chosen the worse possible moment to be in company, because after what had just happened at the train station, and the kiss they had just shared in front of Denton´s door, David wanted to talk to Jack, to either convince him that they couldn´t do this, that it would never work, or to have Jack convince him of the opposite. Instead they were sitting at this table though, talking about how their lives had been since they had seen each other last, how David´s family was doing on the farm (which reminded him that he should probably go and pick up the mail at some point, though he really wasn´t in the mood to deal with Sarah´s reaction to his last letter) and about the fact that Denton was a better cook than Jack would have thought.

“Well when you live alone you learn to adjust,” he laughed, taking a sip of his drink. “And soon I will have time to expand my knowledge on European cuisine, who knows what excellent things I will be able to cook then,” Denton added and David frowned, looking at him.

“Are you planning on taking a cooking class?” Not that he was quite sure where you could actually do that, but this was New York after all, so if Denton was looking for a place to learn how to cook then he would probably find it.

“No,” Denton laughed then, shaking his head. “Actually, that was part of why I wanted to see you boys,” he then said, putting his glass down. “I have been asked to write for a British Newspaper for a while. They´ve read my coverage of the strike, and everything that has to do with it, and they told me that I would be a wonderful addition to their newspaper,” he smiled and David could feel his mouth drop open a little while Jack was still trying to understand.

“Wait, so you´s gonna leave us?” he eventually asked and Denton reached out, resting a hand on Jack´s arm for a moment.

“Just for a little while,” he then told them. “I have been invited to stay for a year, with the prospect of an extension, but I am not quite sure about that yet.” He shrugged his shoulders. “Which is where you two boys come into the picture. “I was planning on selling my apartment, but then I thought: No, I have lived her for quite a while and this place holds memories for me. Plus, I am born and bred in New York, so if I keep the apartment then my chances of coming home are higher,” he let out a soft chuckle. “And you boys told me that you have been living together for the past week and that it has worked rather well, so I was thinking that, in case you´re interested, I´d love it for you to move in here for the time that I´m away.”

There was a silence for a minute in which David tried to process what Denton had just offered him. It would be so easy to just accept the offer, and with one look at Jack he could tell that the other boy would have said yes in a heartbeat, but there were already a thousand possible scenarios going through David´s head, all the things that could go wrong and about a thousand reasons why this wasn´t a good idea.

“Everything is paid for,” Denton then said, interrupting his thoughts. “You would just have to take care of buying food, and the usual stuff like cleaning.” This was mostly directed at David, because even Denton knew that he would be the one organizing things. “I know this is big news, and it´s really just an offer, but I figured it would be nice to have your own place, it´s close to the Lodging House and Newsies Square and not too far from you family´s home, David.” He smiled. “But I know this is a lot, so take your time to make a decision, I will be leaving in about three weeks, the apartment is going to be here whether you want it or not,”  
The rest of the evening was spent with meaningless chatter about anything really, or maybe David just couldn´t remember about what they had talked because his thoughts were still going 200 mph, trying to figure out what to do. He had loved living with Jack, they had worked perfectly together, like they had done from the moment they met, and it wasn´t uncommon for young bachelors to share an apartment, especially in a city as expensive as New York. They would still be able to work, and even if David went back to school they wouldn´t have to worry about paying rent or needing any extra money. There would also be one less person, or two actually, his mother had to take care off, even if she would say that she didn´t mind. Denton´s apartment was also big enough for two, they could turn the office into another bedroom, even if they would probably not be using it, but it would work good as a cover.

David´s head was aching from all the thoughts when they finally said goodbye to Denton a little while later. They had promised to think about the offer, even though thinking was the last thing David wanted to do right now. Jack was rather quiet on their way back to the apartment, and David didn´t say a thing about the other boy coming with him. They had to discuss this eventually, even if he didn´t want to. He quietly pulled the keys from his pockets and opened the door then, letting himself and Jack in.

The silence seemed to be getting heavier by the second and soon enough both boys were reminded of their fight that had taken place here not more than a day ago.

“So…” Jack was the first one to speak up as he leaned against the kitchen table. “What do ya wanna do?”

David appreciated the fact that he wanted to give him a choice here. A few weeks back Jack would have probably tried to get his way, but that wasn´t how relationships worked, especially not if you cared about someone, so he had gotten more careful. David had changed too, and a few weeks ago he had maybe just let Jack go, had told him that this wouldn´t work, and he would have stuck to his decision, but back then he hadn’t know what it felt like to care about someone so much. He didn´t want to lose Jack and it was obvious that he felt more for him than he was supposed to. It wasn´t unrequited love though which, surprisingly, made it even harder to deal with.

“I don´t know.” He eventually said, quite honestly. It didn´t happen often that David had no solution to a problem, but this wasn´t something you could solve with logic, because loving Jack didn´t make sense. Jack loving him back made even less sense to him, but it was the truth and David didn´t know if he could stand to see the hurt and rejection in the other boy´s eyes again.  
“For Heaven´s sake, Davey,” Jack found himself saying eventually as he stepped closer, wrapping an arm around the other boy´s waist to pull him closer. David let him. “Stop thinkin’ so much and start feelin’, would ya?” he shook his head. “I know you´re the smart one, but would ya trust me on this one?”

David blinked a few times, taking a stuttering breath. His heart was beating faster and his stomach was fluttering, because being around Jack did that to him and it felt nice, at least when he let himself forget about all the complications that came with these feelings. “I´ve always trusted you,” he then found himself saying, whispering really, as his eyes met with Jack´s. David had always been closed off, he had been very eager to be the best in school and most kids had resented him for that, but he had been alright with that. He had spent his time reading and staying in his room, telling himself that he would be fine and that he didn´t need anyone. That was until he had met the Newsies, and Jack, who had completely turned his world upside down, and David didn´t want to go back to being alone.  
“Good,” Jack then said and before David could say anything else the other boy was leaning in, brushing their lips together. It had been slow enough for David to pull back, to tell Jack to stop and to let go off him, but he didn´t want to. He liked the way Jack´s lips felt pressed up against his own and the way it made his stomach flutter. David had never felt this way before, but it was a nice feeling, and if that meant that he was going to hell, well then that was something he would have to worry about later.

“Do you really think we can do this?” he eventually asked, a little out of breath, his hands playing with the collar of Jack´s shirt. “Live together? _Be_ together?” He hadn´t even thought about what his parents would say, and how Sarah would react, and suddenly David could feel his head starting to spin again. Before it could get too bad though, Jack was kissing him again and all those thoughts seemed to fall away in an instant.

“Well we have two more weeks to practise,” Jack then said with a chuckle and yes, that was true. David smiled and then finally decided _‘To hell with it!’_ before leaning in to kiss Jack again with such force that they almost tumbled over and onto the table.

Jack was laughing and so was David, and for the first time he felt that, yeah, maybe they could really do this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this is it. I have to be honest, when I started this I only had a rough idea of what it was going to be, but I´m reall happy with how it turned out. Thanks for everyone who has been reading, I hope you enjoyed it! <3


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